Urban nature: Quantitative and qualitative degradation of urban green spaces, case of the steppe city of M’sila, Algeria

Abstract

The role of nature in a city growing in terms of urban extension at the expense of green spaces, like M’sila, remains an underdeveloped subject in the many urban studies carried out on this city. Indeed, the center of this agglomeration, dense of its multiple subdivisions and collective social-housing estates, is always presented as a hostile environment to nature. However, this city was for a long time one of the granaries of wheat and apricot-tree of all the steppe region of Hodna. This paper aims at describing the current situation of nature in an Algerian city characterized by a semi-arid climate, as well as its management by the different social actors of the city. There were used a historical approach and a nondirective interview. This interview technique favors a questioning focused on the knowledge and experiences of the public and social actors.